An upgrade a long time overdue

Steakster - great list of resources and such an interesting "sonic" development.  I am used to live music so the "conditioning" described sounds fantastic.  I am intrigued.  will add this to the list

String - timing is not set....I just got the itch .... i have something now that is decent enough, but really is unprepared or inadequate for the more modern digital media....and the technology has moved in all components enough to make me think it all could be replaced.  I've always been a 80% solution kind of buyer...ie looking to achieve the 80%-90% solution at "half" the cost (or thereabouts)

now gd - you mentioned look at speakers first....ok I'll bite - lets ditch the Dyanaudio contours 1.8mkII's .... what would you suggest to get that sound-stage, assuming I keep the Bryston?  

or maybe its ditch the Bryston as well (no pre-amp btw, its integrated) and go with something like the Rogue Sphinx....

maybe go all the way with the Spinx, with the NAD M50/M52 combo, and Vienna Acc Beethoven Baby Grands...  and now with the Accoustic Revive (courtesy of steakster's comment.....)

you can maybe get a sense for how I sense sonic greatness within reach (and not have to spend 100k)..... 

thanks sfall - and yes i readily admit the pairing is vexing me....

a couple of threads I read through noted good success pairing CJ tubed pre-amps with Ayre amplifiers.  what about the CJ ET3se with the Ayre V5xe?  

do you think the Vandy's are an especially good match for the Ayre? what makes them a better match for the Ayre vs something from Revel or Spendor or the VAs, in your opinion?

appreciate any insight or opinion - its helping me tremendously 
thanks 

 

Thanks for all your comments guys - really appreciate it.  

I did some more digging around, sticking with the premise that I was going to upgrade (generally speaking)...Reading up on the research Sfall provided has been very interesting, but is taking time to get through given how much depth and content in there.  Really great stuff.

I've come up with some interesting observations and results of the reading and research into pairings, which I share here

Pairings and synergies that are appearing to "bubble up" as common (or should be considered as "favorable")....and in no particular order...and for fun.....I'm curious what the reaction will be to these various "system" combos....ie will the sound of #6 be worth 2x as much as #2...is there a clear "winner" based on your tastes....

1) Ayre Ax-5 integrated amp and Vandersteen 3A, or Revel Ultima Salon2 (price about $7k with the vandys, $12k with the Salon)
 
2) Primare pre30 with primare A30.2 for Vienna Accoustics Beethoven Baby Grand (price about $6k)

3) ARC LS27 pre with McIntosh MC275 amp and Tannoy Kensingtons or Sonus Faber Cremonas (Price est $11k)

4) BAT vk51se pre with Bryston 4Bsst and PMC (FB1i or OB1i)
(Price est. $9k)

5) BAT vk51se pre with Bryston 4Bsst and Dynaudio (S3.4 or Confidence 2s) (Price est $11k)

6) Conrad Johnson ET3se pre with Pass Labs x250.5 or .8 and Focal 1027S / Chorus 826 or Dynaudio C2 (Price est $10k with the Focals, $14k with the C2) 

7) CJ ET3se pre with Bryston 4Bsst and either PMC or Dynaudio, as these seem to pair with Bryston the best (nod to the Sonus Faber fans out there) (Price est $9-10k)

8) Rogue Super Magnum 99 pre with Parasound Halo A21 and Vandys, or Dynaudio (same as above) (Price est $7-9k)

9) Rogue Super Magnum 99 pre with Rogue Stereo 90, through KEF R900 or Revel Performa F206 (Price est $6k)

   

lets say $5k or less.  Sweet spot is likely in the $2 - 3k range (guessing).  I mean the Oppo is only $1500 I think..

perhaps a gentle push-back....its not completely subjective.....

going back to the OP....i have Bryston 2B ss integrated now, with Dynaudio Contour 1.8  - i spent a lot of time picking the dynaudio over the likes of spendor, totel, thiel, klipsch, sonus, polk, and so on..... and the Bryston 2B was an upgrade purchase to a Myryad so really the english-dutch thing I guess.  Anyway the point is, I like the Contour-Bryston combo.  

Given the age of my system, and basic inability to really shine in today's digital media (ie thers nothing approaching 24/196 capability), changing the engine (sources and amplification) necessitates changing the vehicle (speakers).  So my quest starts by saying....besides dynaudio (the incumbent), who gets compared to dynaudio?  and since I am looking at used equipment,  listening to these challengers isnt really an option all the time, and given my hectic work schedule and travel, not practical.       

I am open minded, and in a different economic place than I was 15 yrs ago when I put the current system together.  So budget is to be practical without being excessive, rational (for the quality obtained) without being exuberant or naive.  I also dont want to fall into the trap of being penny wise and pound foolish.  Ie spending 6k because its 6k when 8k is not that much more but the results are significantly better.  

I am intrigued by the additional soundstage from introducing tubes (admittedly a close friend of mine was tube-manic and his excessive or obsessive tube searches was scary so I hid in SS land....but as you may have noted, I am tip toe-ing here with mixed tube-ss suggestions).  

I do not have experience with Vandys or with PMC, or with anything tube. So your input / perspectives are interesting and informative (very interested in the "why" you feel the way you do)....and I get that this is heavily dependent on personal taste.  I promise not to hold you accountable.  :)

With no other guidance I would likely go with something like  #7 or #8 above as I would stay with the Dynaudio speaker family and introduce tubes (comforted that being on the used market, the spread between purchase and sale if not to my liking is marginal) and the price point is better than #5 (BAT vs CJ).  Insert the Oppo 105 or the NAD M50 / M52 and away we go.  Maybe a MF or Rega turntable at some point in the future too....but lets not get ahead of ourselves.  hehe.

So - thats my story and I'm sticking to it.....
thanks again for your insights......
and if you havent read that source material in the link above I highly recommend it

 

I dont think I want to introduce a computer and computer based feeds to this.  Looking forward arent we headed more to a wireless and cloud based environment?  Streaming (a la Pandora or Spotify, currently sourced through the android phone) or the occasional movie (eg netflix, etc....and there is a roku-cable box-Sony blu ray player combo with the tv that feeds into the amp aux) is more like it.  

I should listen to my cd collection more - but they are mostly representative of the older sampling methods so somewhat obsolete/incomplete.  They are elevated by the Cal Audio CL-10 I am using now.  

So the digital upgrade is all about upping the game from the CL-10 and Sony players 

BTW - I have a second set up thats runs the NAD 3020, and Mirage 490 speakers, that I think will go.  And keeping the 2B and contours 1.8 for that second system, with the CL-10.  

j - thanks and I appreciate your words of caution.  Since you know what I'm starting from, and potentially what I may be interested in going forward, what other sources would you suggest I consider

anyone else care to dare venture forward and comment on the combinations i proposed  

apologies btw...all along I've been referring to the Bryston as the 2B....I'm own the B60R....but demoing a friends 2B....well you get the idea...anyway its embarrassing .... 

I see that - dedicated streaming.  Do you have a cd source?  Looking at DAC players from the suggestions here (and elsewhere) the trickiness associated with jitter - and where the clock impacts the process - etc - is all very complex and not necessarily transparent in product descriptions.

Linn appears to prefer clock-with-dac...but dont get mentioned in the best performer lists..... the NAD M51 is integrated I'd have to dig deep (or trust the Stereophile rankings....and if i store everything on the M52 is it transferrable once the M52 dies???)....Cambridge DAC I guess pairs with their transport like Linn - but with the clock phasing make a difference? will i be able to tell?

amazing that you can spend a fortune (like dcs rossini) on this stuff and I am not sure (to your point) what the longevity is or what the sonic differences (to me ears) may be.

its enough to make you want a glass of wine.....or bourbon.....

uncoupling the notion of having a player as part of the system altogether is something of a radical idea for me ..... but it appears the DAC technology (whether Ayre or anyone else) is optimized by ripping a cd to storage ....and to that end I can see why people opt to use their computer, or an external data storage setup.  External drives with 1T or 2T are cheap, most everyone already has some sort of computer with disk reader, and the external drives can be backed up in case of failure very easily.  As long as the file type is FLAC, it appears.  

Setups like the NAD or Bluesound ones appear to offer the advantage of being able to play (or rip) cds (so new content is easily added to storage) but with the drawback of embedded harddrive storage disks (and resident failure/maintenance issues)

an interesting turn of events and thoughts......